


The Edge

by BirdOfHermes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Drinking & Talking, Drinking to Cope, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 19:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14921466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdOfHermes/pseuds/BirdOfHermes
Summary: In the aftermath of Thanos' victory, Valkyrie and the survivors of Asgard and Sakaar find Thor in Wakanda. Thor and Valkyrie do their best to pick up the pieces of what's left and bring each other back from the edge. Post Infinity War.





	The Edge

**Author's Note:**

> ALRIGHT SO HERE IS THE SECOND MOST DEPRESSING THING I EVER WROTE AND I DON'T KNOW WHY I AM TORTURING MYSELF LIKE THIS BUT HERE WE GO. 
> 
> Plus, I want something like this to happen at the beginning of Avengers 4. I really hope the Russo brothers don't overlook the importance of Valkyrie as one of Thor's last surviving friends. He still has his Avengers family, but she is equally important to him and I think they'd both need to connect with each other to move on from the devastation. 
> 
> Also, it still pisses me off that the Thorkyrie ship has such a tiny fandom. Stop sleeping on these two. They're great.

_"Please come now_  
_I think I'm falling_  
_I'm holding onto all I think is safe_  
_I seemed to have found the road to nowhere_  
_And I'm trying to escape_  
_I yelled back when I heard thunder_  
_But I'm down to one last breath_  
_And will it let me say, let me say_  
_Hold me now_  
_I'm six feet from the edge_  
_And I'm thinking_  
_Maybe six feet ain't so far down..."_  
_-"One Last Breath" by Creed_

“Thor?”

The King of Asgard upturned the bottle of whiskey until he’d emptied it and let the heavy glass drop to the floor. He glanced at the the open door to his borrowed room to see Steve standing there, not looking any better than he did, but at least he was still alive. “They’re calling for you.”

“Who?”

“Queen Ramonda. She said a ship landed outside of the city. There’s a woman asking for you.”

For the first time in hours, something other than grief and devastation filled the God of Thunder. He nodded tightly and followed Steve out to the outskirts of Wakanda.

By the time he reached the perimeter, the shield had been shut down and he could finally see her face clearly.

Valkyrie smiled as he approached. It wasn’t her usual smile. It was thin and pained, but the relief in her eyes matched his own. “Good to see you, Lord of Thunder.”

Thor cupped the side of her face, not caring if she’d belt him for it. He let out a relieved sigh and pressed his forehead to hers. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you, my friend.”

She didn’t hit him, for once. “Likewise, your majesty.”

He straightened and dropped his hand, glancing at the people standing behind her. The survivors of both Sakaar and Asgard. His heart quivered as he noted that there was only a third of them left from the original population of evacuating Asgard. Thanos’ victory had taken a toll on them as well.

“I must speak with the Queen,” Thor told her. “Wait here.”

He gestured towards Steve. “This is Steve. He is a trusted friend and ally. Steve, this is Valkyrie. She helped my people escape when Thanos took our ship.”

Steve offered his hand. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.”

She shook it. “Same.”

Thor nodded to her and returned to the palace throne room. He nodded respectfully to the Dora Milaje as they saluted him upon entering and approached the throne. He knelt in front of Queen Ramonda, keeping his eyes low. She’d been mourning her son, as had Princess Shuri, who had been all but inconsolable until just a short while ago. She stood next to her mother, her lovely eyes still red, but she had managed to draw from the queen’s strength to find the will to carry on.

“Your majesty,” Thor said. “I have no right to ask anything of you. I failed you. I failed the people of earth. I failed the people of the universe. There are no words to express the depths of my sorrow for your loss. However, the people of Asgard who survived Thanos’ attack when he came for the Tesseract have arrived outside your beautiful city. I humbly request temporary sanctuary for them until we find a place to settle for good. I am at your mercy, milady. Do with me whatever you see fit, for it was my axe that failed to kill the mad titan who took your son from you, and your people from you. I am so very sorry for what I have put you through--”

Queen Ramonda reached out and brushed her fingertips to his lips, stopping him. She touched the side of his cheek and raised his face. There were still tears in her eyes, but there was a tenderness there he hadn’t expected. “Listen to me very carefully, young man. There is no one to blame here but the cruel monster that did this to Wakanda, to the rest of the world, to the rest of the universe. Your team speaks very highly of you. Now I understand why. Do not take this burden upon your shoulders alone. We all mourn. We have all lost. And so we must all bond together to survive. Your people are welcome in Wakanda for as long as they need.”

She leaned in enough to kiss his forehead. “Thank you for protecting us.”

Queen Ramonda pulled him to his feet. Thor clasped their hands for a moment and smiled. “Thank you for your kindness, your majesty. I cannot repay you.”

She smiled faintly. “Silly boy. You already have.”

He bowed his head and kissed the back of her hand. He glanced at Shuri and then back at her mother. “If I may?”

Queen Ramonda nodded. Thor approached her and offered his hand. She smiled a little and took it. “Princess, I lost my brother not long before yours at the hands of Thanos. The loss that you feel is a loss that I understand. If it at all may help you heal, please, know that I am here if you need to talk. I was honored to fight alongside your brother. He was a good man and a great king. I am so sorry for your loss, milady.”

Shuri nodded, fighting back fresh tears. “Thank you.”

He squeezed her fingers very gently, kissed the back of her hand, and left the throne room.

The Asgardians entered the city and were treated for their various wounds and ailments. They found them somewhere to stay for the time being and left them in the care of the Wakandans to get acclimated to both their culture and the culture of earth. Night had fallen by the time they got situated.

The remaining Avengers had all agreed to give themselves the remainder of the day to mourn before they would try to organize a plan to find where Thanos had gone with the gauntlet and get it back to reverse what he’d done. It was too soon to brush off the massive scale of death that had swept across the earth like a plague. Too many friends and allies gone. None of them knew what to say, what to do, in the wake of such devastation.

Except one.

“It’s not strong enough,” Valkyrie said, wiping her lips after a deep swig of whiskey. “But it’ll do.”

She handed the canter to him and he took a long pull off the bottle. There were now twenty of them littered around his room on various surfaces. Thor hadn’t been drunk since he was young, and by now, his tolerance was nearly unmatched. It would probably take a few hundred bottles of whiskey to even get him buzzed. They’d likely wipe out the palace’s supply at the rate they were going.

Valkyrie sat next to him on the bed, close enough that their shoulders bumped. She’d taken off her armor and now wore Wakandan clothing. It was a sapphire blue and gold wrap dress with her shoulders exposed and lovely patterns across the middle. It suited her.

“So,” she said as softly as she could. “Loki?”

Thor gave a small shake of his head. “He died when Thanos took the Tesseract. He…”

Thor swallowed hard and shut his eyes, trying to speak past the lump in his throat. “Thanos demanded it in return for my head. Loki gave it up and tried to kill Thanos. He died trying to protect me.”

He emptied the bottle and dropped it at the foot of the bed, a hoarse laugh in his throat. “After all this time, he tried to protect me. Couldn’t have picked a worse moment to grow a conscience.”

Valkyrie slid her hand down his arm and laced their fingers. “He wouldn’t have done that for just anyone. I knew him on Sakaar. You changed him, Thor. You made him the man he always knew he could be. A hero. Loki died a hero. You should honor that.”

“Aye, I do, but…” He fought back another wave of loss. “Valkyrie, I have lost many a battle in my lifetime but nothing compared to this. There has never been a massacre on this scale in the entire history of the universe. Billions of lives silenced at once, at the behest of a madman. A madman who wouldn’t have succeeded if not for me. I drove my axe into his chest. I pushed it deep. It should have killed him. The war should have ended. But it didn’t. Because of me.”

“No, not because of you,” Valkyrie said fiercely.

“If I had just gone for his head--”

“Thor, look at me.”

She squeezed his hand. He finally met her gaze. “I know what you’re going through. I lost my sisters that day when Hela attacked. You think I don’t wake up every morning and think about what I could have done differently? What I would have changed to save them? The past is the past. Unless you can just summon the time stone out of thin air, you cannot change it. Blaming yourself won’t bring them back. All you can do now is save your strength for the battle to avenge them, and you know damn well that Thanos cannot hide from the entire universe. We will find him and we will make him pay, and then we will reverse the damage he’s done.”

He stared into her dark eyes for a long moment, and the cracks in his heart seemed to seal at long last. He hadn’t realized how much it meant to him to hear those words from a friend, from one of the last people left who cared for him and he for them. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

She smirked. “I’m always happy to smack some sense into you, Lord of Thunder.”

He sighed and hung his head. “Oh, please don’t start that here. It’ll spread like wildfire.”

Valkyrie laughed. He savored the sound. It had been too long since he had a reason to laugh or even smile. When she quieted, they just sat there in a short bout of companionable silence, holding hands, their fingers intertwined.

Finally, Thor glanced at the clock on the wall. “The team will be up early to strategize. Do you want another round or do you want to head to bed?”

Valkyrie raised one eyebrow wickedly. “Bed?”

“S-Separately,” Thor said, blushing. “I didn’t mean to imply--”

“Who said I would be opposed to that?”

“Opposed to what?”

She rolled her eyes. “You really are thickheaded, you know.”

“What?”

Valkyrie leaned in and kissed him. She tugged her hand loose from his and touched the side of his face, stroking his beard. He was breathless when she pulled away. “I didn’t fly halfway across the galaxy just to find my friend. You and I are more than that. I’m not going anywhere. We’ll see this thing through to the end, wherever it leads. The only way to make it is together.”

He wrapped one arm around her, smiling gently. “Aye, milady.”

“And one more thing.”

She slid into his lap, her lips hovering over his. “My name is Brunnhilde.”

They healed that night just as she’d said.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> I cried six times during Infinity War. Anyone else? Christ. I didn't even think it was possible for a movie to wreck me that badly. Avengers 4 is probably going to straight up murder me, skip the crying altogether. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I assume will be at the premiere of Avengers 4.
> 
> Side note: for some reason, the thought of Queen Ramonda gently reassuring Thor just makes my heart swell and bleed at the same time. I think he'd be blaming himself more than even the other Avengers and it would be truly touching to see someone remind him of all he's done and sacrificed for others. *wraps Thor in a blanket and snuggles him* HE'S JUST SO GOOD AND KIND AND IMPORTANT Y'ALL WHY MY POOR BABY GOTTA SUFFER???? DAMN YOU RUSSO BROTHERS.


End file.
